Here’s something interesting. Steve Nunn’s written an article on the BBC website suggesting that society's growing dependence on computers is playing havoc with the environment and that it’s time for IT to go green.

What’s interesting to me about this article is not so much what Steve writes (and I agree with much of what he says) but the comments at the end. Looks to me like the reactions to his article can be largely grouped into three categories; none of which is particularly good news for those of us who think the principles of green computing are beginning to gain a foothold in the public consciousness.

1. Complained that the author suggested that there are many technologies out there which can help to reduce the power usage of IT departments, but didn’t name any of them (they have a point; he could have gone on to explain a bit about virtualization, power efficient processors, or even concepts like telecommuting)

2. Agreed with him that it was a growing problem but argued that for businesses to change to green technologies was prohibitively expensive

3. Felt that processing power was the key and that the need for more processing power is increasing far faster than technologies are becoming efficient, resulting in businesses ignoring green as they attempt to remain competitive

Now, I’m not suggesting this is an accurate survey of the public’s attitude to one of the key issues in green computing, nor is my grouping of the comments into just three categories strictly fair; if you look for yourself you’ll see there were a few other views, but certainly the repetition of the themes above in the comments of BBC readers is food for thought for companies involved in the database industry.

Share this article:

Write a comment
Name:
Comment: